I can give you city 1.3 not being underpowered, but corolla 1.3 is insanely underpowered. Speaking as an owner of one for more than 11 years. Also speaking as a person who suffered in a 17 model xli on babusar top a couple days ago. Plus the 1.3 auto corollas were disgustingly slow even on flat Lahore roads.
Yes we do need to revisit our definition as the whole world has moved on from these insanely underpowered engines that we adore. Our mentality seems to be stuck in the late nineties regarding what is reasonable power for a car. But then even the nineties corollas and cities felt more reasonably powered cause they had around the same power, but were much lighter.
There's a very good reason why city 6th gen didn't come with anything below 1.5 anywhere in the world. We Pakistanis haven't cracked the code of what is a reasonable amount of power which the whole world hasn't realised yet.
Google CVT power losses in comparison to manuals and regular autos. CVT has the highest drivetrain losses. Their main advantage of better fuel economy is only there because of rpm being held steady. Which the fake shifting cvts mess up. Performance still sucks. And even the economy benefits are mostly theoretical as due to higher drivetrain losses, the advantage of steady rpm gets mostly negated.
